Welcome to Camp, Connor
by GreekSailor
Summary: Connor and Travis Stoll arrive at Camp Half Blood. When it's time for bed, Connor has trouble sleeping, and confides in his new brother about how he and Travis got there. [written for my Connor Stoll Tumblr RP blog]


He missed his mom. He still didn't totally understand why, but he knew they had to leave... Did he do something wrong? All those monsters from his past couldn't have been real, right? He was now snuggled in a sleeping bag on the floor in this huge cabin with the other Hermes kids whatever that meant. Apparently half the kids in here were his brothers and sisters, but he didn't believe it. They were all demigods, heroes, children of the gods... Yeah right. His only real brother was sound asleep next to him as he should be. He couldn't deny this brother if he was paid to. They were identical even though they weren't twins. Travis was actually only 9 months older and two inches taller, but they were still inseparable. They were partners in crime since Connor was born. Judging by how much Travis was tossing in his sleep though, sound asleep wasn't a good place to be either...

He rolled over and still wasn't comfortable or tired... He sat up and glanced through the room. Everyone was snoring or breathing softly. It must have been around 3am if not later. He lost count when he jumped at whatever starting howling in the woods at 1:24am. He always counted when he was nervous. It was a habit he picked up since he learned to count. He always had Travis with him. Always. But now he was all alone in the dark and more restless than ever. He had to get out. He had to go. It's just what he did. He hopped over a few sleeping people and made it to the doorway. He was about to bolt when someone spoke up out from the darkness.

"I wouldn't, if I were you, kid. The harpies will eat you before you even get the chance to understand what's going on. They don't know you yet. I don't really want to burn another shroud for a little brother of mine this year." The moonlight through the window was hitting in the spot where the voice came from. He was a tall, older boy with a crooked smile and a deep gash on his face that was stitched up. Connor winced just looking at it... He was the one who the twins pointed out as the head counselor for the Hermes Cabin. "But I understand your need to leave. They won't bother you if I go with you."

"I- uh... I won't get in trouble or anything? Like getting locked up in that prison cabin with a V on it right?" His voice was trembling. He hadn't really spoken since he arrived... The guy smiled at him, and just navigated through the other kids as he led the way out the door.

"I can't promise we won't get in trouble, but I promise nothing bad will to you. That's not a prison by the way. That's just the Ares Cabin. My name's Luke. And you're uh...Tr- No Connor, huh?"

Connor blinked. No one ever could tell them apart. "Yeah. I'm Connor. How could you..."

"You have more pronounced dimples. And you're uh...two inches shorter?" Connor stared; he didn't know how he could remember that so fast. Or more along the lines of how he knew at all. "Dad's family skills...I have an eye for detail much like yourself I'm sure. It helps with uh, our unique knack for getting into trouble. Hermes, our dad, is the god of thieves and travelers and merchants along with shepherds, business, wit, literature, sports, pranks, and inventions. Now look I know it's a lot to take in, but it's best to just go with it. Trust me on that one. Well as much as you can trust a Hermes kid. But look, I'm your big brother, and I'm going to take care of you way better than Dad ever has, okay? I understand what it's like... I wish I could say it gets better, but it just gets worse. We protect each other here though like you and Travis have all this time. Just see us as one huge family."

Connor just looked up at him. No one but Travis knew what it was like...yet, this guy was so sincere. "R-really?"

"Yeah I've been here a year and a half already. The nicest thing Dad ever did was send me on a quest that almost got me killed." He touched the scar on his cheek bitterly... "Speaking of that, here. Take this knife. You don't really look like an offensive kid quite yet, but you need something to protect yourself. I hope it's better for you than—Uh never mind. Just use it in emergencies though, okay? Only when it's life or death. I gave enough knives to kids in the last few years…but all well. How old are you anyway? Actually...how, um if it's okay to ask, how did you get here?" They were on the edge of the lake, and Luke stopped and sat. Connor followed. He really was like a brother... _Just accept it_...Connor took a deep breath and calmed down for the first time in a week... From that moment he decided Luke, his new brother, was someone he trusted...

"Well okay, it's a long story, but here we go... I'm Connor Eros Stoll. I'm 8 years old, and well I'm in trouble a lot. I thought this was a place for bad kids until about 5 minutes ago. I thought we were just finally caught. Just a few weeks back, me and my brother conned this guy out of his apartment complexes because he wouldn't give my mom a fair rent price. I was tired of it and so was Travis. So we broke in and found out that he'd been making up numbers on the electricity and water bills for the tenants. We threatened to expose him and make him lose his license until he turned over the entire complex to my mother. This was the first con job we've pulled. Mom was mad, though I think I saw her trying not to laugh. This may not seem important yet, but it is because this is when it all started at least with this story. You see we had to move out of our last place because some things kept trying to eat is. Our neighbors actually... We swiped all their stuff one day because we thought it would make them leave. Please don't tell anyone! We don't steal stuff to be bad... it just happens sometimes. When people are mean or something we just kinda...get sticky fingers. It's a reflex, but only when people are bad. I know it doesn't make it okay. My mom doesn't like it. After we told her about the neighbors, bad idea by the way, we had to move. She was so...scared. I guess she doesn't want us to go to jail or something. We packed up all our stuff in like three hours and had to stay in a hotel for a little while. I may be young and get bad grades, but I'm not stupid… I know she can't afford stuff like that. We're kinda poor. Well we were until what I told you about the apartments. Now we get rent money! Mom's in charge. We got five buildings total. Me and Travis even got our own rooms by the way in the new apartment. We still went to school in the old neighborhood though. My mom always tried to say we were sick. We had to go though. We have a lot of friends, but our teacher still hated us, so if we missed she'd call Mom to see why. She always punished us for no reason and tried to keep us after school but we'd always sneak out because Mom said we had to go home right after school no matter what. Finally we couldn't take it anymore, this was three days ago or so by the way, and we stayed to find out why she hated us so much. All our classmates left, well there was one girl who stayed because she wanted to kiss me for luck, but she left eventually. As soon as she was out the door the teacher said she knew who we were, and what we do and now she was going to punish us. We thought we were caught for stealing or the apartment thing. But then well, she made this really scary sound and turned into a really scary…something! It wasn't quite as bad as the frog but that was another time. Well since this wasn't the first time this has happened, we did the obvious thing and ran. She followed us. We ducked down alleys and stuff and eventually lost her. We went home and told Mom what happened and she turned white. It was really scary, almost more than the teacher. We thought we did something wrong again, but Mom just hugged us and told us it was time to know the truth because they found us. She told us our father was going to claim us soon and not to worry. Then we all baked cookies and acted normal. We watched Hercules and ate dinner, and then went to bed like normal, but in the middle of the night we heard the teacher thing… Travis and I found each other in the hall and agreed we had to get out of there. It had found us. And now Mom was in danger. We had to run, and well the short story is after three days of dodging that thing, we saw the sign to camp. Like I said we're not stupid. We just don't do school. We read it with no trouble. I don't know how we came straight to it but we did. We didn't know if it was a bad camp or a good one, but anything would be better than the thing. The monster vanished when we crossed the pine tree and then we were almost killed by that horse guy. Well not really…but he was scary enough to kill us. Then we watched some stupid video that made no sense and got to call mom. She was sad but she said we were better off here. Then some guys showed us around. Uh, I think they were from the cabin next door. Twelve? Yeah… They were twins. They were our age and stuff too. They hoped me and Travis were real twins, but well we're not so… A blonde girl with gray eyes told me hi at some point and asked me if I was a son of Zeus when a symbol popped up over me and my brother's head. Then everyone sighed because there was 'just another addition to the Hermes Cabin' and she just giggled and waved at you. I uh see what they meant by that though. So…uh yeah, that's how I got here."

Luke smiled. "No doubts you're my little brother, I guess. The twins were Pollux and Castor, sons of Dionysus. The girl was my friend Annabeth, daughter of Athena. You on the other have been claimed as one of us. Your need to move, sense of direction, and even the sticky fingers of yours…that's all gifts from Dad believe it or not. You won't get in trouble here for using them either. Not saying you should rob everyone blind…but uh getting into trouble is okay sometimes. The worst is that you have to clean the kitchen. Just don't get caught in following your instincts. So wanna get into some trouble, little bro?"

Connor smirked at his new family. He only behaved for 8 years because his mom said please and even then he still had trouble. "There're exactly 8 faulty locks in 100 yards. The most promising was on that camp store thing. It will take about 10 minutes, to get in and out and if we're lucky we can also snag enough TP to TP the cabin filled with scary kids. The prison one… I really need a new pair of shoes first though and some for Travis. Ready? Go."


End file.
